Nearly 250 players will begin their challenge to secure a place in March’s Coral UK Open Finals when the first three UK Open Qualifiers take place between February 3rd-5th at the Robin Park Tennis Centre in Wigan.

This weekend’s triple-header is open to both PDC Tour Card Holders and PDPA Associate Members, with £60,000 worth of prize money on offer each day. After the six qualification events have taken place, the top 96 players on the UK Open Order of Merit will progress to compete at the UK Open Finals, alongside 32 Riley’s amateur qualifiers.

Friday’s opening UK Open Qualifier will commence at 2pm to accomodate the Premier League stars travelling down from Newcastle after Thursday’s opening night, with the events on Saturday and Sunday beginning at 12pm.

Phil Taylor and Terry Jenkins are the two big-name absentees from this weekend’s field. Both men have claimed they will not compete on the PDC Pro Tour in 2017; they will just participate in major TV events that they’ve already qualified for. However, it remains to be seen whether they’ll enter the second set of qualifiers in a bid to reach Minehead.

Defending UK Open champion Michael van Gerwen will be present in Wigan. ‘The Green Machine’ won three of the six qualification events twelve months ago, and he’ll be hoping to extend his astonishing unbeaten streak on the PDC Tour which stretches back to mid-October, when he was beaten by Daryl Gurney in the German Darts Championship.

Van Gerwen will be joined by Gary Anderson and Adrian Lewis, who are the only other competitors besides MvG in this weekend’s field that won a UK Open qualification event in 2016. Other Premier League stars such as Peter Wright, James Wade, Dave Chisnall, Jelle Klaasen and Kim Huybrechts will also make the journey to Wigan.

Two-time UK Open champion Raymond van Barneveld is another high-profile star that will be competing at the Robin Park Tennis Centre. Van Barneveld has expressed his desire to compete more frequently on the PDC Pro Tour in 2017 and he’ll be joined by his proteges Jeffrey de Zwaan and Dirk van Duijvenbode.

The 2012 UK Open champion Robert Thornton will also be in attendance, as will former finalists Vincent van der Voort, Andy Hamilton, Mark Walsh, Wes Newton and Barrie Bates. Elsewhere, the likes of John Part, Ronnie Baxter and Paul Nicholson, all of whom regained their PDC Tour Cards at Q-School, will also be in action.

Nevertheless, seven tour card holders besides Taylor and Jenkins have not entered the opening three qualification events. This list includes Mickey Mansell, Kim Viljanen, Ross Smith, Scott Darbyshire, Simon Preston, Harry Robinson and John Norman Jr. The full list of participants for all three days of competition can be viewed below!